If a state senate bill makes it through the house legislative sausage grinder, three Washington State agencies will be tasked with controlling and stopping an epidemic that many Washingtonians have never heard of - a diabetes epidemic.
A report issued last year at the behest of state lawmakers concluded that about 640,000 state residents - about 9 percent of the total population - have diabetes. Worse, the study concluded that more than a third of the state's adult population have pre-diabetes - but most don't even know it.
Direct medical costs for the disease in 2012 were estimated to be $3.75 billion, and that cost may skyrocket to about $5.5 billion in the next decade.
The bill under consideration now would require the Department of Health, the Department of Social and Health Services and the Health Care Authority to huddle and come up with a statewide plan to cut the incidence of diabetes - especially Type 2 diabetes which can be controlled by weight loss, smoking cessation, exercise and similar modifications.
The agencies must also coordinate their plans, education and prevention programs, and within two years, write and present to the legislature a detailed plan of action to battle diabetes.
The bill was approved unanimously in the Senate last week, and has survived its first reading in a House committee.
